Men's Health Magazine pulls 'misogynistic' sports story and tweet

Men's Health Magazine pulled a controversial story and tweet about female sports fans, which readers criticized as being sexist and ignorant. (Barbara Davidson, Los Angeles Times)

A tweet Monday from Men’s Health Magazine advising men how to talk to women about sports prompted a quick, and furious, backlash on social media, and has since been removed.

The tweet, "She sees the game differently than you. Here's how, and what to do about it," comes with a link to the story titled, "The Secret to Talking Sports with Any Woman" and a picture of a smiling young woman holding a massive red foam finger.

Monday night, the publication apologized for the story and the tweet, saying it "missed the mark" with the piece, and the "negative feedback was justified." Both were removed.

After the initial tweet was sent Monday, both men and women, professional sports writers and the common reader, found the premise insulting.

Among the gentler descriptions of the magazine's angle: "tone deaf," "misogynistic" and "ignorant."

According to Topsy, a trend tracking website, the tweets prompted a flurry of social media activity, with about half of the Twitter mentions of @menshealthmag on Monday coming in the hour after the tweet in question went out.

Specifically, between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m., @MensHealthMag garnered more than 4,800 mentions, mostly from outraged readers, according to Topsy.